31 July 2012

Games Day Germany ahead ...

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Soon it is Games Day time in Germany again ... to get into the right mood let's have a look on last years jungle report ...



Like last year Massive Voodoo and Team Germany will have some tables where small Workshops and demonstrations will be held. This year it is not only me at the MV table - make ready for some more Monkey Action ... :)

Review - 'Malzeit!/Painting' PARTY!

posted by roman, jarhead, kong



Ok, this is something else than the usual miniature and jungle stuff.

We had our first party in our studio to celebrate the studio and my 30th birthday.
Many friends and family arrived during the weekend to get the party started at Saturday night. Thanks to everyone who helped in the preparations, but especially to my girl, Anna for preparing the dinner in such an awesome way ... I still dream of this table at night.





























Thanks to all our guests who made this weekend so cool'n'un-forgettable!

Raffa and I had a plan as we called the invitation and the theme of the party "Malzeit!", which means Painting Time. We prepared some canvas for a big painting, in fact the "last supper" by maestro Da Vinci was the main inspiration. We planned to paint it with apes, monkey and banana.

In fact this was some awesome choice. We just prepared the background, constructed the room and gave the apes a little birth with rough pencil sketches. After the fabolous dinner and some drinks we started the painting with a little explanation by me and Raffa. Everyone was allowed to paint what and where he wants and some small introduction in materials was added too.

After this announcement I was really stunned by that power colours and paint had on our guests as a lot of them did meet for the first time. It was true communication via paint and a cool getting to know eachother. I was really thankful that this worked well in the end as I was pretty excited the days before ...



THE END
... so far ...

No, not yet - you might ask what happened to the canvas and the last supper? It became an awesome painting with so much good memories to this night, but it is still not finished yet, as Raffa and I still have to work detail on the background and the table, monkeys are so cool!!!! ... and they will be surely shown here in the jungle, BUT Raffa and I we have to dive deep in our Games Day projects now ... whatever, thanks to everyone who was a part of this Saturday night and for sure at Sunday's clean up :)




30 July 2012

Kong's WIP thoughts - July #08

posted by roman, jarhead, kong



The last week ended way too fast and we had some preparation to do for a little party in our studio. Friends and family have been invited to the place for last Saturday to celebrate the studio and my 30th birthday. So preparation was needed ... this Kong's WIP puts an eye on the last days of the last week ... a full report and what we all painted together will be revealed soon ... stay tuned!

Thanks to everyone who was there and made umba umba party with us! Thanks for all the helping hands all the time ... it was such a nice weekend :)



... and a little preview on what we did at saturday night with friends and family ... aye aye ayeeeee!!


26 July 2012

Beautiful Nature??

posted by Oli, HonourGuard, silver leaf

Hey friends,

today I want to show you one of my biggest projects so far: "Beautiful nature??"

Its a very important project for me, because two points. At first the artistic creation and second the story behind it. I will tell you more about it.

I wanted to create a scene that happens in our world every day and every minute. Animals lose their living environment, just for some humans making a lot of money. The worlds' seas, get fished empty. 1/3 of all plants and animals are at risk to die out. I really don't want to say to my children; look, this was a lion, and this?? okey I don't remember.. ahh a sumatra tiger..

I would like to reach the result, that people watch this little vignette and see the sad atmosphere, an animal coming back to his home and everything is damaged, and he just watch it.. and can't even make a noise.

Do we all have to make a big career with making a lot of money, buy expansive cars, the newest mobile phones..?

This may sound a little dramatic, it shouldn't. I just try that people think about it for some seconds.  The most beautiful things in the world, aren't the things you can buy. But for sure, everybody needs money for live, thats no question.

To the artistic part, this is my first figure I sculpted completely by myself (after some test sculpting). I am very happy with the result, I tried to sculpt some kind of an old faun, that's why he isn't so muscular. He come back to his home environment, and see everything is destroyed. The coke tin and the plastic bag stands for our modern world. At the moment he saws the destroyed place, he lose his power and lean on the tree. I tried to get a big contrast from the living nature he come from, to the earth in front of him. I have chosen, an fantasy figure, not an normally animal. I wanted to find a middle between, our world, fantasy miniatures and the story I want to tell..:)

Yea.. so far, I hope you like it, the title was chosen, because I think, that many people don't know what beautiful nature should be. It is in the sky, its in the mountains in our forests, in every animal..:)
I didn't wanted to sound theatric, I just want to give you a chance to understand my crazy thoughts on a long day..:)

Best regards Oli




Musica

posted by roman, jarhead, kong


25 July 2012

Ghoul Final Pics

posted by Peter aka Baphomet,

Heyho :)

I was finally able to take some more or less good pictures of the finished Ghoul-Bust (by JMD). Don´t know what´s the matter with it... it took me about 4 tries till I got 1 "good" picture :-/

Well, I hope you like this ugly guy ;



And here a quick shot of a testminiature, I´m painting for the Games Day in Cologne this year... Some of the apes will do a small painting-demonstration there and how I will show how I´m painting metal... so I need some pictures for the handout. Hope I will be able to finish it by time... too much stuff to do at work :-/



Best wishes,
Peter

British LRDG 1942 North Africa, Brekk and Magic balls

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Andalleee, Arrriiibbbaaa ...

Nothing fency but finished and I am happy how the bust of the British LRDG 1942 North Africa turned out in the end. A little bit sandy in its colours but a tiny glow of the cigarette brings colour back on track.

Done with  Forged Monkey's Dayglow colour. Bust comes from Young Miniatures and somehow reminded me of one of my good friends from the inner power the character shows :)



British LRDG 1942 North Africa
Young Miniatures, 1:10



Hope you like him! What else do I have ready to show ... ah yes ... At our BÄM-Workshop I also painted a Brekk bust by Forged Monkey for explanation. Don't mind the freehand - that is indeed very, very strange :D - I just checked and some areas I did not finish up, like the earring, but for a bust painted for explanation of different materials and intense light and shadow school, painted during one weekend it is ok and I have no time to paint those buttons now!!! Damn, shouldn't have painted this stupid freehand :D

Brekk, the Lion
Forged Monkey, 1:10


Another thing is an old project that someday will be finished - you might remember it from this and this video log. A big project with tons of Red Box Games figures. I got to make a photo again as Tre was in need of a character photo of the magician ... hope this is the right one! My head explodes from things on my to do list :D



So far, keep on happy painting out of the force field!
Best Wishes
Roman


Kong's WIP thoughts - July #07

posted by roman, jarhead, kong



Heyho Jungle visitors,

deep down low in the deep green forest of Monsoon Valley the monkeys are working and working. Being at the workshop means somehow losing time for the world wide web, like blogging, forums and strange youtube quests, etc. - that ain't that bad at all as the workflow is truely epic at the workshop, but we got way too much to do. So it is still our task to find true and harmonic balance between being at the studio and time spent in front of the computer screen. This won't be easy as working towards different goals, comissions and ideas keep Raffa and me ultrabusy.


We had a little painters meeting last week on Friday and for the fun we had some cheap plastic guns shooting plastic darts. In fact it is not only hard to find the balance between working at the studio/home - it is also hard to grow old :D

Duck and cover - I now just bomb you with impressions of the last days in the studio ... and as it looks like some projects of Raffa and me are growing ready for the upcoming Games Day in Germany - at least this is good news, even we might paint until the last second because there is so much work still left to do :)








True Story:
One day ... our Mr. Cash poster fell down while we were away ... we were lacking powers during painting because Johnny was not right behind us. This is truely strange but in the end we accepted that this poster has to be in place while we work as it just blows your mind free from thoughts and fear of errors while painting :)


... but maybe we just should paint more instead of having too much fun :)

By the way - when it comes to painting time - Raffa and I will be painting at the local store "Create and Play" in Augsburg at the 4th of August ... check in for a little chat about painting and smell the full dosis of our painting spirit shortly before the Games Day :D


Also at this day Peter is painting at a local store in Ludwigsburg, the Fantasy Stronghold. Check in for some painting voodoo and a nice chat about colours and figures.

So far, keep on happy painting!
Best Wishes
Roman